117 S3559 IS: Fair College Admissions for Students Act U.S. Senate 2022-02-02 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

II117th CONGRESS2d SessionS. 3559IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATESFebruary 2, 2022Mr. Merkley (for himself and Mr. Casey) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsA BILLTo amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prohibit institutions of higher education participating in Federal student assistance programs from giving preferential treatment in the admissions process to legacy students or donors.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Fair College Admissions for Students Act.

2.

Ban on legacy or donor preferences in admissions

(a)

In general

Section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1094(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:(30)(A)The institution will not provide any manner of preferential treatment in the admission process to applicants on the basis of their relationships to—(i)donors to the institution; or (ii)except as provided in subparagraph (B), alumni of the institution.(B)The Secretary may waive the limitation described in subparagraph (A)(ii) for an award year for an eligible institution described in section 371(a) if such institution demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Secretary that preferential treatment in the admission process to applicants on the basis of their relationships to alumni of the institution is in the best interest of students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education..(b)

Effective date

The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the first day of the second award year (as defined in section 481(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1088(a))) that begins after the date of enactment of this Act.